Blog | Why Obama said what he said at prayer breakfast? Three Muslim students in Chapel Hill shot in head (updated)
Update:
Victims’ father said shooting was a hate crime, victim told him alleged perpetrator hating them:
“It was execution style, a bullet in every head,” Abu-Salha said Wednesday morning. “This was not a dispute over a parking space; this was a hate crime. This man had picked on my daughter and her husband a couple of times before, and he talked with them with his gun in his belt. And they were uncomfortable with him, but they did not know he would go this far.”
Abu-Salha said his daughter who lived next door to Hicks wore a Muslim head scarf and told her family a week ago that she had “a hateful neighbor.”
“Honest to God, she said, ‘He hates us for what we are and how we look,’” he said.
Randy Tysinger, a spokesman for Ripley Rand, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina which includes Chapel Hill, said federal prosecutors are aware of the allegations the shooting was a hate crime. But Tysinger stressed that the Chapel Hill police investigation is in the early stages and said the federal prosecutor’s office would wait for more details before deciding whether to launch a federal hate crime investigation.
Update: Chapel Hill police said the killings could have involved a long-term dispute over parking.
For more than a week, there’s been non-stop consternation and discussion about President Obama’s words at the National Prayer Breakfast, in which he implored us not to get on our high horse and condemn Islam because terrorists have done awful, disgusting things in the name of that religion.
He reminded us that evil shows up in many ways, and all religions have been used as an excuse to do dastardly things.
And for that, many accused him of attacking Christianity and excusing terroristic behavior.
No, he was doing what the Republican president before him also tried to do - keep the focus on the bad guys while not allowing an entire group of people to be painted as the other, as potential threats, because some bad men have co-opted their religion. American history has shown us what happens when an entire group of people is dehumanized that way.
Obama and President Bush tried to make it clear that we are fighting those who inflict terror upon others, not a particular religion.
It seemed as though many more conservatives, in particular, at least tried to hear that message when it was coming from Bush but have not only ignored it since Obama has taken office, have done their level best to turn this conflict into a religious war.
In fact, South Carolina’s senior U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham has gone as far as saying we are in a religious war.
Well, Graham doesn’t seem to be the only one.
A man allegedly killed three Muslim students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, execution style, putting a bullet in each of their heads.
Police have not said what the man’s motive was, but his Facebook posts reportedly show a hatred of religion.
When a Muslim terrorist does something awful, people are quick to call on peaceful Muslims to condemn the act.
I suppose, then, every person who has felt it right to talk down about an entire religion, one that has more than 1 billion members, will feel compelled to not only condemn what happened in Chapel Hill, but to feel personally responsible the way they demand that of every Muslim.
That includes a ton of Christians I’ve heard from and atheists local and national.
Some are reporting the man was an atheist who had all religion.
Or maybe that standard only applies to Muslims because the rest of us are above such things?
I’m heading back to the Chapel Hill-Durham area again this week.
The last time I was there, people were threatening to kill people if Duke University allowed Muslim students to go forward with a particular public prayer.
Now I’ll be going back shortly after someone made those threats a reality at UNC.
If this doesn’t drive home the point that Obama was making - that it matters how we talk about and view these things - then nothing will.
This story was originally published February 11, 2015 at 8:13 AM with the headline "Blog | Why Obama said what he said at prayer breakfast? Three Muslim students in Chapel Hill shot in head (updated)."